5G Technology: The Telecom Revolution

In the race of embracing 5G technology, India’s leading telecom player Bharti Airtel along with China's Huawei has successfully completed the trial of 5G technology in the city of Manesar near Delhi, which brings us one step closer to adoption of 5G technology. This trial is a part of an initiative that was taken by the Indian government to attain 5G technology by the end of 2020. With the increasing population in India, there is an urgent need for a 5G technology to manipulate the transferring of signals in high rate. According to the global LTE report of OpenSignal’s, India was ranked last in the 4G speeds despite the huge availability of 4G signals around the country.

Commenting on the India’s trial of 5G technology, Ericsson's global chief technology officer, Erik Ekudden said “The Indian government is taking all the right steps to bring the latest fifth-generation or 5G technology to India, that will initially target certain industries and enterprises”.

“The promise of 5G is endless. It will be a game changer, and it will change the way we live, work, and engage,” said Bharti Airtel Network Director Abhay Savargaonkar. “We look forward to working closely with our partners for developing a robust 5G ecosystem in India,” he added.

Along with India, other countries are also working on acquiring 5G technology. Japan and China have already started their trials on 5G networks of bands 3600- 4900 MHz and for the higher speeds, the countries plan on using spectrum around the 25 GHz and 40 GHz frequencies. Japan had decided to deploy its first commercial 5G network that complies with international technical specifications in time for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

5G connectivity will boost digitalization through the wireless connections, IoT devices, cloud computing, mobility and Big data. It has flexible network architecture and is fully cloud-based, that enables it to delivers better and more capabilities compared to other communication technologies.

Recently, Forbes released a 5G white paper, in which 80 percent of executives expressed their belief that the 5G network has the power to provide a large number of benefits. They have realized that it will provide a path and platform for the transformation of their operations.

If India acquires 5G technology by the end of 2020 it will be very much beneficial for the country as it will increase its chances to become fully digital. However, there are certain challenges that the country has to face regarding the devices and the bandwidth that will be used to operate 5G technology.